Canal 2009

In 2002 we purchased a week on a Narrow boat in April, a lifetime of one weeks holiday a year on a narrow boat. The boat is Shakespeare Classic called Ophelia and is now moored at Mercia Marina, near Willington.

Mercia Marina

We left home at 10.30am and decided to go via the A34, M40, M42 and the A444, Tom Tom got confused on the last stretch and took us the back way. Naturally we got stuck behind a learner driver, but still arrived at 1.45pm. We had stopped at services on the M40 for lunch, where we had a gold plated sandwiches based on the price.

We were the first to book in, the boat was ready although when Donna heard we where heading for the Trent she realised we had no anchor or centre rope, they quickly found us an anchor and extra rope. At the new marina we were able to load up our boat from the finger mooring which is better than previous years. Ophelia has a new engine and an LCD TV with Freeview tuner. The mechanic still has to take your boat to the exit of the Marina.

We were on our way before 3pm, Stenson lock was the only lock we had to do before stopping for the day, we had the lock to ourselves it was half full so we had to fill it, it took its time to fill and a lad from the pub came and helped open the gates.

We moored up at the Ragley Boat stop for the night, a short distance from Stenson. For us is was quite a posh mooring, as it belongs to a Pub Restaurant. We unpacked and got ourselves sorted, the nice thing about Ophelia is that it has large draws for your clothes and plenty of hanging space.

We had a good meal at the Restaurant, Ann had an 8oz fillet steak and Edward 12oz Porterhouse steak both with salad. The steaks were done just right. Amazingly Ann also had chocolate sweet and Edward had a cheesecake. We would recommend the Restaurant.

We had good Internet connection and our aerial is giving us good TV reception after dark. The weather was dry though a little chilly.

Day one - Friday 3rd April

The day started with a typical April mist and was chilly, we had breakfast and got underway at about 10.00am. The first lock of the day was not in our favour at Swarkestone, by the time we had done this another boat arrived and we shared locks all the way to Shardlow.

The sun came out as we approached Shardlow at 1pm, where we decided to have lunch. After lunch we moved on to the Trent to Sawley. The large locks at Sawley are usually manned, but this time of the year they are only manned at Easter or week ends. Ann had to do the pushing of buttons to control the gates and paddles, so she was rather spoilt.

After a short distance along the Trent we turned into Cranfleet cut. The main difference with locks on the Trent, as opposed to canal locks, is that the lock mooring embankments are much higher than the boat to allow for raised river levels in wet weather. This makes getting on and off the boat much more difficult as one often has to climb up and down vertical ladders set in the wall. Where floating pontoons are used for lock moorings then a long series of steps have to be negotiated. After the Cranfleet Lock the flow of the Trent over the Weir was very loud and fast, luckily it did not effect the boat.

For the next one and half hours we followed the Trent twisting along through the country side. Its is quite wide, and at one point there were lots of Chalets along the bank, with boats moored in front of them. There was a very large gent, in a very small dingy, sitting watching the world go by, I am sure he wasn't going to use it for fishing as it only just big enough for him to get into. There’s no place to moor up along this stretch, any suitable moorings were taken up with boats on private moorings.

When we reached Beeston Lock and on to the Nottingham Canal, there was a steep climb up a ladder and large steps up to the lock gates. An old bloke and his Labrador dog helped Ann with the lock, explaining it only needed a few inches of water to bring it to the right level. He then supervised us to the moorings and helped tie the ropes and told us where the good eating places were.

However we decided to eat in tonight, having a Pasta bake. We have good Internet connection and the TV is fine except for channel 5, much to Ann’s disappointment.

7 Manual Locks and 1 Push Button Lock

Day two - Saturday 4th April

There was very little mist this morning and the day turned out sunny and mild.

We had a leisurely day. After a couple of miles we stopped at Sainsburys for a few supplies. The centre of Nottingham is quite pleasant with many modern developments. After the first lock there is a sharp right hand bend before the last lock, you get a good view of the Premier Inn Restaurant, the last lock lets you out from the canal on to the River Trent.

The river is quite wide and ends up, from a canal boating perspective, at a really large lock called Holme. The lock is perhaps 9 metres wide and about 40 metres long. We had to wait while several boats, including a large tourist boat, completed their descent.

Ann took over the lock controls, it can take up to quarter an hour to fill the lock. The gates will not open until the water levels on both sides are equal, and you must close the gates at one end before you can start operating the other end. There are two control boxes and only one will work at a time.

Before you start the filling or emptying the lock you have to make sure all the boats are secure. Going down there is not much turbulence and one can simple tie the centre rope to the vertical wires set in the walls. When going up both ends of the boat need to be secured as the turbulent water flow can move boats from one side to the other in seconds. The best way is to loop the mooring rope around the wire and tie the loose end to the boat with a few feet of slack.

We went through with a small plastic boat, it seemed such a waste of water, though of course much more water goes over the weirs in a few minutes, day in day out.

This is also the home of the National Water Sports Centre. What was once a weir has been converted in to a white water rapids course. Various canonists and teams of rowers, in inflatable boats, were shooting the rapids and then climbing back to the top, everyone to their own sort of thing I suppose.

The river winds on through open countryside to a 2nd large lock, called Stoke Bardolph, which Ann operated. Besides the plastic boat we picked up another canal boat. One problem with a river is that there are very few places to tie up for lunch. We kept on going and had a late lunch on the move at 2-30pm. The narrow boat which joined us, told us he was heading for Gunthorpe Warf, its the only place to stop between here and Newark and has several eating places which he recommends.

We got to Gunthorpe about 3-30pm and were first to tie up on the visitors pontoon, this is a nice spot catching the afternoon sun and a nice view of the river. We had a good meal at Tom Browns Bistro, Ann had a Rib Eye Steak and salad and Edward had water cress soup followed by a salmon fillet, we both had sweets.

We have good Internet connection and the TV was fine after we did a new channel search, we should have done the latter last night.

We did 2 manual locks and 2 Push Button Locks

Day three - Sunday 5th April

Another mild and sunny day.

We have a routine, the kettle is on by 7.30am, back to bed till 8-15, Edward cooks breakfast bacon, mushrooms, and tomatoes, he washes up, we aim to moving about 10ish.

Today we needed to fill up with water, so we moved to the Warf and it took about 20 mins to fill up. Ann walked to Gunthorpe Lock which was not very far away, while Edward got the boat ready to go in. It took about 3 hours to get to Newark with one more large lock called Hazelford. While the lock was emptying Ann took the rubbish to the rubbish point. The river is wide in many places and quite attractive. We saw numerous plastic motor boats out for a days jaunt and most created too much wash. Some were little gin palaces they had no thought for other boats and didn't reduce their speed or course.

We tied up in Newark just before the main lock and had lunch. Edward wandered up to the lock and decided we wouldn't go any further as there were not many safe turning points past this point and the lock itself would add half an hour. We turned round and caught up with 3 slow canal boats. Opportunities to overtake were limited as the plastic motor boats were returning home in the opposite direction and the river twists and turns. Eventually we did overtake and arrived at a Hazelford Lock, Ann set the lock ready for all 4 boats.

We were first in and positioned ourselves near the high end gates which turned out to be a bad choice. By this time the other 3 canal boats had arrived and settled in to the lock. We had only tied up with the poorly positioned centre rope on to one of the vertical wires. The flow was turbulent and got between the boat and the lock wall resulting in the boat swinging across the lock. Ann noticed what had happened and stopped the flow.

Edward tightened up the centre rope which positioned the front of the boat awkwardly in relation to the nearest vertical wire, the front mooring line was too short to go around it and back. Edward attempted to hold the front of the boat against the wall but could not even with the flow at its lowest.

The old hand in the boat behind us suggested we tie up alongside him at the rear of the lock, all went smoothly from then on, though the neighbouring boats dog jumped on to ours and had to be retrieved. He was a young German Shepherd and wanted to have a nosey around our boat.

The 3 other boats planned to tie up just passed the lock while we moved on to Gunthorpe and found a nice spot on the inside of the pontoon. A short time later the 3 other canal boats arrived, their mooring spot had been privatised. We had been wondering how they were going to get the dogs up the high wall at the previous lock.

They all managed to fit in and we were having good old chat, the reason they were going so slow, was one of the boats engine was not well, they spent most of the night trying to fix it. One of the boats moored on the pontoon was a large wide beam, we chatted to the owner about her boat, they were hoping to get across to France to explore the French canals, but was unsure if they could make it across the channel. The other boats were heading for the Thames to do some cray fishing, they showed us the cray pots and how they use them. They were also going to attend boat shows along the way.

We had pasta bake leftovers for dinner.

Day four - Monday 6th April

The day started off cloudy but was still mild.

We left Gunthorpe at about 10-00am. We had to slide out past the boat behind us without hitting it and we didn't want to disturb a Moorhen’s nest with three babies. They had kept us entertained most of the morning, the father was collecting food for the mother and babies.

We had the river very much to ourselves. We had no problems with Stoke Bardolph lock, though Holme lock presented a minor problem. The vertical wires on the left hand side, going up, finish just above the high water level. Edward was watching the front tie but the rear tie got caught and he could not untie the knot. The solution was to close the gates, which by this time Ann had opened, and lowered the water level by 30cm. We had lunch just after Holme lock, it got busy about 1pm, lots of boats were making a move through the Lock.

We got to Meadow Lane Lock about 2-00pm. Ann climbed up to the lock and did wonder why the lock was barricaded off but squeezed through and started to set the lock. The lock is part of building site and was closed until 3.00pm everyday till further notice. The plastic boat we shared the lock with said they won't open them till 3.0pm, but Ann moved a few barriers and the workmen came out to help. We thanked the workman for their help. The plastic boat owner was being very careful not to touch ours, Ann asked them to lift their fenders but they wouldn't. Thankfully it didn't trap the boats in the lock.

Both boats interrupted a photo shoot outside the Premier Inn and moved on to the next lock. However the plastic boat declined to shared the lock, I think they scratched a fender on our previous share and it was a new boat.

We got to Beeston about 4-30pm, and moored up where we had previously. We had dinner on board having sausages, potato bake and broccoli.

Internet connection was poor, probably sharing bandwidth with too many others, but TV was good after pointing it in a third direction.

Day five - Tuesday 7th April

The day started off sunny but the wind was cold and naturally coming from our direction of travel so head winds most of the time.

We shared the lock at Beeston and continued along the Trent to Cranfleet lock, the wind was strong at the Cranfleet and it required full, 2500 rpm throttle to get off the pontoon and get the bows pointing towards the wind, the weir was running fast which didn't help.

We had lunch at Sawley and filled up water. We moored right next to boat Narrowboat World, the owner runs the narrow boat world web site. We didn't knock and say hello as it was lunch time but next time we see it we will.

We crossed the Derwent Mouth and got to Shardlow about 3.30, we found the last but one mooring spot in the centre of Shardlow. The stern is on a ring and the bow on two pins, not the best arrangement but was OK as the traffic was light. Ann put white bags on the pins to warn people they were there, an old gent walking by told her it was very considerate of her to do this, made her day!

We went for a walk to the local boat chandler and purchased some extra pins and a couple of lengths of multi fibre polypropylene rope. The ropes that come with the boat are sometimes too short, in future we will be able to use our rope. Ann got some more Pearson guides as we were planning our next holiday on the canals. We had a good meal at the Clock House Pub, Edward had a thick gammon steak and salad and Ann a sirloin steak with chips and salad.

We had a rather leisurely day with only 4 locks, 3 of which were of the hand variety.

Internet connection was flaky but TV was good.

Day six - Wednesday 8th April

The day was sunny and warm. We only had five locks today but needed to get back to the marina by 4-00pm.

Naturally we were plagued by Canal Time boats from Sawley, some were out for the first time and had difficulty getting into the locks and were not sure about their operation. There were plenty of returning boats too, all in all progress was slow.

Shortly after Swarkestone lock we pulled over for lunch, it was the first time we had used our mooring hooks, everywhere else we were on mooring rings, save last night where we used 1 pin. When we moved off we made the mistake of letting a boat pass us, it turned out to be another slow coach with all the time in the world.

We shared Stenson lock with the slow coach but were first out of the lock and managed to get back to the marina at about 4-15pm.

We went by car to revisit the Ragley Boat Stop Restaurant as it was only a few miles away. This time the service was quite poor, they lost our order so the meal took forever. Equally the room was packed with people, mostly families, who kept milling about.

Later we started putting our surplus food and other things into collapsible boxes and bags, ready for our journey home tomorrow.